The use of luggage carriers to increase the cargo carrying capacity of motor vehicles has become quite widespread, particularly since motor vehicle manufacturers have begun producing smaller and smaller vehicles in an attempt to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Most luggage carriers in use today mount either on the roof or the rear deck of the vehicle.
In my earlier related U.S. Pat. No. 4,125,214, I disclose a bumper-mounted luggage carrier consisting of a pair of upright laterally spaced bumper guards secured to the bumper with, for example, a U-shaped rack frame pivotally mounted between the bumper guards allowing the luggage rack to be pivoted from a horizontal use position to a substantially vertical storage position. The rack is provided with lateral and horizontal reinforcements to stabilize it while the rack is in motion. The bumper guard luggage rack disclosed in that patent provided a useful option for the motor vehicle, but it presents some difficulties in installing or removing. Furthermore, the embodiment disclosed therein made no provision for convenient curb side loading of the racks or for accommodating access to the trunk hatchback door or tailgate of the vehicle, thus making it inconvenient or impossible, for example, to get to the spare tire in the event of a flat tire without removing the luggage and possibly the whole rack.
The present invention is an improvement in the structure disclosed in said patnet, which provides a bumper mounted luggage carrier which may be rapidly and manually mounted to a conventional rear bumper and which may be easily pivoted by each of a pair of axes, one parallel to the bumper and one parallel to the bumper guard, such as to allow pivoting of the carrier frame between a vertical storage position, a horizontal trunk access and curb loading position, and a horizontal use position.